Cowboy and Ella
by Anna Lane
Summary: My title is a lame play on words of the original. This is how I believe the movie should have ended. All reviews always welcomed.


**A/N: I don't own. I do, however, love. This is how I believe Cowboys and Aliens should have ended (because I'm a sucker for happy endings) and I can't leave well enough alone. And because Daniel Craig is a fox. Let's see how many people can spot all the examples of symmetry to the movie!**

The girl gasped. Her eyes, as they opened, were blinded by the unforgiving light. She flipped onto her stomach, cringing away from the sun and burying her head in the ground. She could feel warm sand clinging to her whole body. She coughed to expel some from her lungs.

She tried to rise onto her hands and knees, her delicate blue eyes becoming accustomed to the sun, but her shoulders collapsed. Her arms were too weak to hold her. Everything hurt. She lay on her side, in the fetal position, cradling her shaky stomach.

It was easy to be still, but when the hot rays of the sun lessened, she knew it was time to go. She rose, sat cross-legged, and watched the sky. Late afternoon, she guessed, not sure how she knew. She couldn't stay here during the night. A desert at night, she somehow knew, would not be something she wanted to experience.

Just as she was about to stand, she heard the sound of horse hoofs. She stilled, too afraid to turn around, too afraid to move at all. The rider circled her and his impatient horse skidded to a stop in front of her.

The glare from the sun made his face impossible to read, and she felt her parched throat close with fear. She was all too aware of how vulnerable she was. She let her head fall forward, her hair covering her face.

She heard him jump from his horse. She felt the vibrations in the sand as he neared. She saw his hand stretch towards her. Before he could touch her, she reacted.

Her small hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled, causing him to fly over her and land on his back behind her. In the time it took her to flail around and face him, he was already crouched low and headed towards her once more.

He tackled her around her shoulders and had her against the ground in one lunge. Her knee lifted and slammed into the right side of his lower stomach. It wasn't her intended target, but he doubled in pain just the same. Her elbow slammed into his temple to knock him completely off her. He rolled a few feet away from her at the blow.

She scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but his big hand enclosed her ankle. She fell to the sand, first her knee hitting and then her chest. He started to climb up her body as she struggled in his grip. She used one foot to push at his shoulder and the slight reprieve allowed her to gain a few feet scrambling backwards until his arms wrapped around her waist and his chest held her lower half pinned in the sand.

She gave an involuntary scream as he raised himself up her body. Her useless, ineffectual kicks landed awkwardly on his back and sides as he maneuvered himself between her legs to try and hold her in place. She spared his face no look as one of her hands went to his hair, desperately pulling his head back and throwing all of her weight to his right side, knocking him off balance.

She'd twisted as he fell so that she rested on top. Her knees trapped his waist. She felt his strong grip at her waist, ready to throw her off, when he stilled at the sound of the click of his gun. She watched his lips part in surprise as she pressed the barrel hard under his chin. She was panting as she finally studied him. She didn't know why she didn't just shoot him. Maybe it was his cool blue eyes, shining in the sunlight. They almost had her at ease until she felt him shift and her eyes hardened. She pressed the gun more forcefully into him.

He was looking at her in wonder. "How did you get here?" He asked. His voice was thick with emotion.

"I don't remember," she ground out.

"What happened?" He questioned.

"I don't know," she said through clenched teeth.

A hint of a smile ghosted over his features. "What do you know?"

"English," she quipped, and the full blown smile on his face caught her off guard.

"Ella," he breathed her name as a sigh. His features relaxed and his hand moved to her face.

"Don't move!" She warned, her body pressing harder against his, trying to remind him who had him pinned. His hand dropped back down to her waist, which she was not sure she was more comfortable with. She felt a stirring beneath her and shoved her hips further into his, trying to still him. "I said don't move!"

He groaned and the sound made her stomach flip. His eyes moved over her hungrily. "It's hard," he gave a nervous laugh at his choice of words, "when you are naked, writhing on top of me like that."

Her eyebrows shot up, and her big blue eyes widened in surprise. She shifted atop him, testing this newfound power.

"Ella," he groaned, his mouth straightening into a grim line.

"You keep calling me that. _Ella_. Is that my name?" She demanded as her grip on the gun loosened.

"Yes. You don't remember me?" He looked at her with soft eyes. She shook her head slowly. "Do you trust me?" He asked in a gravelly voice.

"No." She said decidedly.

Before she could react, his hand closed over the gun and ripped it from her grip. He threw it far off into the sand. She expected him to roll and gain the upper ground by pinning her beneath him, but instead she was shocked when his hand went to the back of her neck and forced her mouth down to his.

She was too shocked at first to respond as his lips molded to hers, sucked them into his mouth, ran his warm and sweet tongue across her lips. But then she started to struggle fiercely. She wasn't sure if she was struggling to free herself of his touch or trying to crawl inside him. Her hands frantically went to his hair to pull him closer, her body flush and wriggling against him.

He broke away and gasped in air, but she refused to break contact with him. Her mouth traveled down to his throat, where she none too gently bit and sucked the stubbled skin she found. He moaned and his hands smoothed down her back.

"Ella," he warned, "we have to stop."

"I remember," Ella panted, "I remember the first kiss."

He smiled and his hand cupped her face. "The rest will come back." He gave her a quick peck, and before she could deepen it, he'd sat up and gathered her in his arms. He stood and brought her to the horse. He set her on the saddle and she looked at him with longing.

"Wait. We'll get there before you know it." He promised darkly. "But we need to leave before night falls."

He easily hefted himself on the horse behind her. His strong arms imprisoned her waist as he grabbed the reins.

She leaned back into him. "Jake." She whispered, remembering his name.

He draped a blanket across her to cover her nakedness, but his arms remained beneath with her, his arms against her bare flesh. She shivered.

He only needed one hand for the rein, and after a while, his warm hand came to rest against her thigh. She squirmed uncomfortable as she rocked on the horse while the beast trotted, blissfully ignorant. His hand rose to her waist, holding her lower stomach, mere inches from where she desperately wanted him.

"Do you know how much this is torturing me?" She whispered to him. "You, holding me, riding this horse?"

His blue eyes looked dark with desire as she turned her head to the side to look at him. "Do you know how hard it is, riding this horse, your _naked_ body snug against mine, trying not to touch you?" He countered.

Ella lifted her mouth to him and he kissed her without pause. Her arm went behind her to hold his head closer as he assaulted her mouth.

His hand traveled up her stomach and two fingers lightly pinched her nipple.

Ella cried out and nearly arched off the horse. The only thing keeping her on was his strong arm wrapped around her middle.

They broke apart breathlessly. She noticed her blanket slip to the ground as the horse continued its jostling trot. "It fell off," she said, uncaring. He grunted and she felt his face in her hair. "I don't think I can wait." She confessed.

He slipped from the horse and her body went cold with the lack of his heat behind her. "You don't have to," he assured her.

She looked up to see the cabin before them. She grinned as she tipped from the horse and fell into his waiting arms.

He carried her into the house.


End file.
